CWG corruption: Bhanot tells court CBI biased against him

 Lalit Bhanot, the former secretary general of the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee on Friday told a special CBI court hearing a corruption case against him that the charges reflected the prejudice of the prosecution.

“As far as Bhanot is concerned, the chargesheet reflects total prejudice of the prosecution,” Bhanot’s counsel Ramesh Gupta told Central Bureau of Investigation Special Judge Talwant Singh.

Gupta’s argument came while opposing the corruption charges levelled against Bhanot over a contract for timing, scoring and results (TSR) system given to a Swiss firm.

Bhanot was part of the conspiracy for financial irregularities in organising the Commonwealth Games, the CBI alleged. According to the prosecution, two bids were received for the TSR contract from Swiss Timing and MSL Spain and these were opened November 4, 2009, but former CWG OC chairman Suresh Kalmadi and his associate V K Verma had at a meeting October 12, 2009, announced that the contract would be awarded to Swiss Timing.

Bhanot, however, alleged MSL Spain used forged documents in the bid, and its submitted forms were not duly filled.